Abortion

The word abortion barely has any real meaning anymore. People speak of their positions on the act without truly considering the grotesque physical happenings that take place during the procedure. In the politically correct world, to be anti-abortion carries a negative stigma but to be pro-choice carries with it some odd form of false compassion. One need only take an in-depth look at the phrase pro-choice to begin to understand the ugly nature of the position. What are the options between which a pregnant woman supposedly has the right to choose? The options are :

1.) she can carry her baby to term and he will be born as nature intended
2.) she can have him slaughtered and dismembered in her womb and then removed one piece at a time through abortion.

Besides the murder of an innocent baby who is unable to speak for his own defense what other crimes do people believe there ought to be a choice? What would our world be like if the pro-choice moniker were applied to rape? Well, that would make the choices for a man such that:
1.) He can rape a woman
2.) He can decide not to rape a woman

One of the ringing criticisms that would be levelled against this second scenario is that the woman being raped is traumatized and is an unwilling partner. I propose that the same is true with an abortion. The baby is not only traumatized but dismembered and killed and he too is most definitely an unwilling partner. It is no more the mother’s right to take the life from a baby by abortion than it is for a man to take the dignity from a woman by rape. Another point about the phrase pro-choice is that no one ever uses it to mean that they favor the choice of life. The phrase should be changed to pro-infant dismemberment or pro-infant destruction because that is what the users of the phrase really mean.

Who are the Women who have Abortions? Half of all American women who have an abortion are in their prime childbearing years. Sadly, 17% of all abortions are teen pregnancies and 33% of all abortions in America come from women ages 20-25. Promiscuity and a culture of unrestrained sexual activity where all rules no matter how sensible and healthy they might be are touted as repressive and judgemental. It is women and the infants that they carry who pay the price in this culture of sexual hedonism. Fornication is damaging women to a great degree considering that those who have never married obtain 66% of all abortions in America. However, it is absolutely shocking to discover that 43% of women obtaining abortions identify themselves as Protestant, and 27% as Catholic. ( Gutmacher Institute reference ) This is the most disheartening statistic of all! These supposed Christian women by professing their faith in Christ are supposed to avoid this evil. For Protestants the beliefs differ from denomination to denomination but one would be hard pressed to find a denomination that approves of the practice. However, since the first century the Catholic Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. ( Catechism reference) This Catholic teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law. In light of this teaching the Catholic Church cites the Scriptures found in the book of Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.” And in the book of job in Chapter 10 verses 8-11, “Your hands have formed me and fashioned me; will you then turn and destroy me? Oh, remember that you fashioned me from clay! Will you then bring me down to dust again? Did you not pour me out as milk, and thicken me like cheese? With skin and flesh you clothed me, with bones and sinews knit me together.”

For those who accept the Bible as the truth the issue is solved. From the Prophet Jeremiah we know that God knew us in our mother’s womb and from Job we know that God Himself was in the process of knitting together our sinews and bones while we were in our mother’s wombs. Thus, those who dismember and kill a human being while he or she is still in the womb destroy the work of God’s hands right in the middle of His progress. If for nothing other than this it is a terrible affront to God’s will that a mere man or woman should take God’s work, dismember it and throw it in the trash. What artist, engineer, doctor, lawyer, or any other human professional could stand such a rude and abominable crime as to have their important work completely destroyed and trashed?

Regardless of the reason, the act of dismembering and killing an innocent baby is such a grave offense that the Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. If a Catholic woman has an abortion she is automatically excommunicated by the very commission of the act along with all of those who might have enabled her to have the procedure including but not limited to the doctor who performs or advises the procedure, the nurses, the person who drives her to the clinic, the boyfriend or others who give counsel in favor the act, any monetary contributors, or anyone else who helped or encouraged the act in any form or fashion. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.

Another very early Christian text that the Catholic Church cites for instruction on the matter is the Didache which was written by the apostles in the first century. It states : “You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish”
Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life. The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation. Lawmakers should write laws that protect those who cannot help themselves. If there are laws against killing adults there should also be laws against killing children; even those children in the womb who cannot speak for themselves. The question is not a matter of a woman’s right to govern her own body which no one should dispute. Rather it is a matter of a woman’s right to govern the body of her child. This right should be exercised by the mother to take care of her own child in the womb. However, her rights should end when they mean to intentionally bring harm to her child. The law ought to step in a protect children from being dismembered and thrown in the trash just as the law steps in when a grown man or woman domestically abuses or beats a young child. How can a society pass laws that protect women from being beaten by men and protect children from being beaten by wicked parents and then hypocritically ignore the dismembering and disposing of infants as if they were human waste. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being's right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death. "The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law. When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a state based on law are undermined. As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child's rights." Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being.

Why do Women Have Abortions? According to the (Gutmacher Institute) 40% of pregnancies among white women, 69% among blacks and 54% among Hispanics are so-called unintended. This is a very odd classification for a reasonable person to make. The terminology used shows a disturbing disconnection between the act of intercourse and its natural result of pregnancy. The disconnection is in the fact that people intended to have intercourse but not to have a baby. This is akin to washing a car without the intention of removing dirt or it is akin to overeating without the intention of getting fat. The idea that sexuality is to be engaged for the sole purpose of satisfying barbaric and hedonistic impulses lowers a person’s dignity to the level of a beast. To possess no temperance or governance of one’s own passion is utterly deplorable. What separates man from beast if not his ability to deny natural impulses for the sake of human dignity. Yet it is apparent that 40% of white women, 69% of black women and 54% of Hispanic women have shown little more restraint than that of a dog in heat. A thinking person realizes that within nature intercourse begets offspring. The word combination "unintended pregnancy" is a fallacy for use by the feeble minded. According to the (Gutmacher Institute) 75% of women who have an abortion cite the following reasons:
1.)responsibility to other individuals
2.)they say cannot afford a child
3.)having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents;

and 50% of them say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.

To put the matter mildly, the reasoning that these women offer is severely flawed. Reason number 1 for example says, "My strain of caring for others is so great that I would dismember and kill my own child in order to not take on any more burden." Reason number 2 says "I would rather dismember and kill my own child than cut back on expenses in order to raise them. Mary and Joseph were so poor that their baby was delivered out in a stable. What if Mary had told the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation of the conception of Jesus that she was too poor to have a child? While a child born today might not be the Savior of the World no one can truly say what great gifts our society is being denied by the erasure of an individual child's life. Reason number 3 says that I would rather dismember and kill my own child than let my performance slip at work or school or in my duty to others. What about the duty of being a mother inherent with pregnancy. Those who abort their child surely fail the greater calling of motherhood through which the Bible says women are to be saved.(1 Timothy 2:15) The last reason sited above is that 50% of women say that tehy would rather dismember and kill their own child than to raise the child as a single parent or cause grief to their husband or partner. With such an abhorrent attitude toward life it is almost assured that anyone who reasons in this fashion will surely find a way to cause untold grief to their significant other.

The (Gutmacher Institute) claims these reasons are due to women's "understanding of the responsibilities of parenthood and family life." Any reasonable person will acknowledge that is terribly false. A pregnant woman has the responsibility to guard the new baby in her womb from harm. There are laws that protect toddlers from parental neglect. Thus, there ought to be laws which protect preborn infants from intentional parental harm. What woman can in good conscience claim that she has her family's best interest at heart when she is willing to take the life of the most innocent and closely related family member in her clan? A baby is not a female medical problem that inhibits the mother from caring for the remainder of her family, it is a second person with his or her own soul inside a tiny little body that just happens to reside within the mother's womb and dependent on the mother's ability to provide life support functions. When the mother pulls the plug on those functions thorugh abortion it is no diffrent than pinning grandma up like a dog and refusing to feed or water her until she dies from exposure, dehydration, and starvation.

How Often do Abortions Take Place? According to the (Gutmacher Institute) From 1973 through 2005, more than 45 million legal abortions occurred in the United States. Hitler was responsible for approximately 20 million deaths. Stalin was responsible for approximately 30 million deaths. With the abortion rate in America in excess of 1.2 million per year, by 2010 American women will have killed more people than Hitler and Stalin combined. This is tragic to say the least. Watching the old movie "It's a Wonderful Life" is a great activity for understanding even from a humanitarian perspective how important one life truly is, no matter how mundane and average it might seem. What potential innovations, good deeds, medical cures, or other desirable realities have remained unrecognized and undiscovered on account of the loss of all of those souls who would have been born into the world had nature been allowed to continue its traditional course?

Concluding Remarks The failure seems to me to be not so much on the part of the mothers but of those of us around them. How have we as Christians allowed 70% of abortions to stem from Protestants and Catholics? As Christians we must work harder to provide help to those who find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy. We must not stigmatize mothers to the point of convincing them that there are no other alternatives available for them. My email address is posted in the "contact us" section of this website. While I am no specialist on the subject I extend my offer of help to any woman who finds herself in the situation where abortion seems the only alternative. No problem is of a nature such that it can be made better by the dismemberment and disposal of an innocent baby. In closing, Mother Teresa of Calcutta who dealt with the poorest of the poor in India for the majority of her life once said, "It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that one might leave as they please."

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